Resuscitation
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The charts of all adult patients with accidental hypothermia who were admitted to a single academic hospital during a 10 year period were retrospectively retrieved. The aim was to identify factors associated with survival of those with hypothermic cardiac arrest. Of 75 admitted patients, 44 were found to be haemodynamically stable and not to require invasive rewarming measures. ⋯ Logistic regression analysis showed that of the 23 patients, 22 could be correctly classified as survivor or nonsurvivor based on the level of serum potassium and arterial pCO2. It is concluded that patients with cardiac arrest due to primary hypothermia tolerate long periods of conventional CPR before institution of CPB. The possible predictive role of serum potassium and arterial pCO2 needs further evaluation.
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To clarify the incidence and survival rate of bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) with cardiac etiology in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, with a population of nearly 9 million according to the Utstein style. ⋯ The incidence of bystander-witnessed (OHCA) with cardiac etiology and VF or VT were remarkably low compared with those reported by other studies conducted in some areas of Europe or the USA.
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The introduction of the European Resuscitation Guidelines (2000) for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillation (AED) prompted the development of an up-to-date and reliable method of assessing the quality of performance of CPR in combination with the use of an AED. The Cardiff Test of basic life support (BLS) and AED version 3.1 was developed to meet this need and uses standardised checklists to retrospectively evaluate performance from analyses of video recordings and data drawn from a laptop computer attached to a training manikin. This paper reports the inter- and intra-observer reliability of this test. ⋯ The inter- and intra-observer reliability for the majority of the variables in the Cardiff Test of BLS and AED version 3.1 is satisfactory. However, reliability is less acceptable with respect to shaking when checking for responsiveness, initial check/clearing of the airway, checks for signs of circulation, time to first shock and performance of interventions in the correct sequence. Further research is required to determine if modifications to the method of assessing these variables can increase reliability.
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During reperfusion of ischemic myocardium nitric oxide (NO) reacts with superoxide radicals to form cardiotoxic peroxynitrite, which causes lipid peroxidation. Our hypothesis was that infusion of a NO donor S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) during ischemia-reperfusion would exacerbate the oxidative damage to the myocardium by increased formation of nitrogen radicals. ⋯ The NO donor SNAP increased free radical concentration and exacerbated myocardial oxidative damage after ischemia-reperfusion.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of standard CPR versus diffuse and stacked hand position interposed abdominal compression-CPR in a swine model.
Interposed abdominal compression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (IAC-CPR) is an innovative basic life support technique requiring no mechanical adjuncts. Optimizing its performance remains a challenge. Hand-position technique over the abdomen during interposed abdominal compression (IAC) may be important. ⋯ No CPR-produced trauma difference was found. Abdominal hand position (diffuse or stacked) did not affect blood flow in either the aorta or IVC or resuscitation success in this experimental model. There was a trend towards better outcomes with stacked hands IAC-CPR with 90 versus 70% survival with STD-CPR.